I have a 97 850 base model wagon. When I got it, the steering characteristics were horrible.

In the past couple of weeks I have replaced the front control arms, inner and outer tie rod ends and the tires. I know the struts are a little worn, but I don't have the $ at the moment to deal with them.

Now to my question. I took the car in for an alignment after the work was completed and the driver side wheel is sitting at 2.2 deg negative camber. The tech loosened the two lower bolts and took the weight off the car and retightened them. no apparent change.

The camber kits I have seen seem to have about 1.75 deg of adjustment from zero.


Where should I start looking for the cause. I would like to find it before my new tires get eaten up

Thanks

 

What kind of lower control arms did you use? I put new ones in recently and discovered that the shoulders on the new bolts were "over" 1mm Dia. smaller. Very sloppy and heard it immediately. also, it might be a bent steering knuckle or maybe the strut.

BTW how was it installing the inner tie rods?.. did my outers, lower control arms, struts, links, never thinking the inners would be bad (because the outers were still pretty tight) Guess what? Bad.

 

I used the aftermarket (less expensive) control arms from FCP Groton.

I don't see any damaged suspension parts. I suppose there could be a bend not visible to the naked eye.

The inner tie rods were relatively easy. Whoever did the previous set used about a gallon and a half of loc-tite.

I am a little curious to know if something like worn upper strut mounts are known to cause this problem on the 850.

Additional information: The car is completely stock. Also, upon re-examining the alignment sheet, the caster on the right front is off by 2.3 deg.

 

The strut might be bent a little bit.

 

Hmm.

A friend of mine owns a used car lot with a non running 850 sedan sitting in the back. Maybe I'll go pirate some parts and see what happens.

 

Crap!

Parts car is gone